Lithium-ion batteries have come a long way in the past 20 years, and for good reason. Billions have gone into researching how to make these batteries commercially viable. However, li-ion batteries still need a lot of work, and even if they reach their theoretical maximum for energy storage, they still can't compete with octane, according to the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research. For Tesla , this could spell trouble. Battery Chemistry 101When you break it down, a battery is just a way to store energy. Further, they have three essential elements -- an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte. The anode and the cathode are electrodes, while the electrolyte -- the stuff in between the anode and cathode -- allows the flow of electrical charge between the electrodes. The idea behind new batVisit daily finance for full article

bluebird1 - "Tesla's too linked to Li-Ion which will likely be replaced with another type & they're not in a good position to diversify.But if forced, I'm sure they'd find a way."

Why should it take any more than buying a different type of battery?

"As for posters like rjhenn, we have those now (a type of hybrid) & just look at how well the Volt has been accepted!!!!"

Most of the hybrids I'm aware of, including the Volt, try to mechanically link the gas and electric drives. What I'm talking about would be a pure electric drive, with a multi-fuel engine optimized for and matched to a generator, whose sole purpose was to recharge batteries. It's only connection to the power train would be through the generator, and it would be optimized to run at a single speed and constant load to drive the generator.

If Tesla had to cough up as much money as Boeing did to solve their Li-ion battery problem, they'd be vaporized and gone in a heartbeat. Too bad it hasn't happened.

In my opinion, I don't agree with our government giving our tax dollars to companies that do nothing more than supply a novel toy car to people that have way too much disposable income, i.e., not relevant to the average person, and supply nothing more than R&D to the rest of the industry.